From this Antwerp street...
March 15 2016
Picture: BG
This is Hoogstraat in Antwerp. In the house on the right with the red brick upper floors, Jacob Jordaens was born in 1593. In the house at the end of the street, facing down Hoogstraat, Anthony Van Dyck was born in 1599.
So much artistic genius from one street. There must have been something in the water...
Update - a reader writes:
There's even more 17th century art history connected to this street. The Hoogstraat leads on one side directly into a small medieval alley called the Vlaeykesgang where there was once a famous inn called 'De Roode Schild' (The Red Shield)', run by the greatgrandparents of Nikolaas Rockox, the great art patron and personal friend of... Peter Paul Rubens ! So maybe there must have been something in the beer rather than in the water....
